This article is transferred from: Popular Science China
There are small treasures at home, "what to eat" and "what not to eat", are all big problems in the family.
For new parents, the most common problem is: the baby spits up milk, does not eat milk, but loves to eat hands. What to do?
Question 1: Is it a disease for babies to spit up milk?
Many parents have encountered situations where their babies spit up. New parents are both puzzled and worried about this: Why does the baby spit up?
The correct approach is: relax and give the baby a relaxed feeding environment;
▲ You can feed your baby while you sleep. But be careful not to let the baby lie flat and eat, you can put the baby's head slightly higher, or the mother holds the baby in her arms to feed.
▲ You can put some relaxing music before feeding, so that the baby's body and mind can relax and distract the baby's attention. At this time, it is much easier to feed the baby.
▲Babies who generally appear in the anorexia period are about one year old, and some complementary foods can be added appropriately, which can not only ensure the nutrition of the baby, but also improve the baby's anorexia.
Question 2. Babies love to eat hands, should they be stopped?
Many parents will find that babies like to put their hands in their mouths when they are two or three months old. Will this behavior be unhygienic and unhealthy? Should it be stopped?
▲How old is the baby who loves to eat hands?
Some babies will eat their hands when they are in their mother's belly.
Normal babies aged 0 to 4 months will suck on anything that touches the periphery of the lips, which is a physiological reflex.
Most babies start eating from 2 to 3 months old, peak at 7 to 8 months of age, and gradually fade after 2 years of age.
▲Why does the baby eat hands?
Modern neurology believes that babies develop their peripheral nerves earlier, and the "mouth" is a tool for them to explore the world and experience the environment. When the development of the cerebral cortex reaches a certain stage, it has the ability of hand and mouth coordination, so that the baby's ability to dominate himself is improved, which is a signal of intellectual development. In other words, sucking the baby's fingers is a normal manifestation of physiological and psychological development.
▲The baby eats his fingers, what should the parents do?
The correct way for parents to deal with it is to keep the baby's small hands clean and the lips clean and dry, and clean up the toy items that the baby can touch in time.
After the baby is seven months old, give strips or finger food in time, let the baby hold the food in his hand to feed himself, and help the baby successfully pass the oral period.
You can hang some small toys with different textures at the head of your baby's bed to guide your baby to learn to reach out and touch objects with different textures and different feels.
▲When do I need to correct the behavior of eating hands?
After the baby is 2 years old, he will gradually change himself and no longer eat hands.
If you are over 3 years old and still like to eat hands, parents need to help the baby correct.
If babies over the age of 4 still love to eat, it is a behavioral bias, which generally occurs when they are lonely, tired, depressed, sleepy, and hungry, and the number of times due to separation anxiety and illness increases. Parents need to find the cause and intervene in time.
In addition, if the baby sucks excessively, resulting in finger molting, swelling, bleeding, etc., it needs to be corrected at any time.
▲How to correct the baby's eating behavior?
Parents can often stroke and swing the baby's small hands, or put the toys into the baby's hands for play to divert the baby's attention from sucking the fingers.
If your baby's appetite is too strong and he sucks his fingers frequently, consider giving a pacifier.
Do not approve of applying spicy or bitter things on the fingers to correct.
Source: Chinese Society of Rehabilitation Medicine